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fan·dan·go

(făn-dănggō)

n. pl. fan·dan·gos

a. An animated dance in triple time of Spanish origin, popular on the Iberian Peninsula and in Latin America.

b. The music for this dance.

2. Informal Nonsense; tomfoolery.

[Spanish, possibly alteration of *fadango, from fado, from Portuguese, sad song; see FADO.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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